As I go to the grocery store more and more I see food that I just don’t understand! I guess I’ve just gotten so used to the idea of cost, quality, and nutrition over convenience that things concocted for convenience just don’t make a lot of sense to me! Someone please explain….
- Frozen Peanut Butter and Jelly “Sandwiches”
Clearly, I am missing something here. Is it really that much trouble to spread peanut butter and jelly on a couple of slices of bread and slap them together? I’ve seen these things up close. They have about a million ingredients and there is nothing appealing about peanut butter and jelly literally oozing out of the mushiest previously frozen white bread that you’ve ever seen. Gross. And these are served in school cafeterias!
- Whole Wheat Crackers….That Aren’t Whole Wheat
Honestly, it can be a challenge to find whole wheat crackers that are whole wheat. The crackers in this picture are made by a well-known “health food” company. Out of four or five boxes of “wheat” crackers, only one of them was whole wheat. Now, if you don’t want to buy whole wheat crackers, that’s your prerogative. I buy crackers that aren’t whole wheat. But I don’t buy “wheat” crackers that aren’t whole wheat, and it seems like a bit (or more than a bit?) of false advertisement (I just said that as ad-verr-tis-ment like a British person in my head!) to put out wheat crackers and have the first ingredient either be “enriched flour” or “wheat (not whole wheat) flour”. Soap box-read the labels!
- Single Serve “Gourmet” Oatmeal Cups
Again, since when is instant oatmeal too much trouble? And the much healthier old-fashioned oats take like five minutes. But apparently we now find it necessary to buy a fancy cup of oatmeal that costs about $1.50 that contains dried fruit, nuts, and no doubt a blooming ton of sugar? Talk about profit margin.
- Parmigiano-Reggiano Bites?
Okay, again….profit margin? Do you see the price on that? $7.99! Now, Parmigiano-Reggiano is not cheap-$16-$17 a pound-but this is ridiculous! And I love Parmigiano-Reggiano, but it’s not a cheese that I really want to take a big bite of.
- Flavored Apples!!!
Apples have a flavor. It’s called apple.
- Powdered Icing Flavors
Now, I’m all for flavored icings, but really? You buy an unflavored “base” and mix in a packet of icing flavor, like bubble gum or mint. Because apparently mint extract is too complicated? A few years ago I no doubt would have found this idea intriguing….but now I just find it confusing.
- Single-Serve Coffee
Sorry to offend the K-cup lovers out there…but I just don’t get this trend! I am a die-hard coffee drinker, but (a) these little boxes of single-serve coffee are so expensive (and people call my whole bean coffee expensive!); and (b) I just can’t imagine that it’s that good! I do understand the convenience of just making one cup…but if I just want to make enough for one cup….I just make enough for one cup!
- Ready-made Hard Boiled Eggs
When I worked at a pizza chain with a salad bar in high school, we got bags of peeled, hard-boiled eggs to chop up and put on the salad bar. Now, you can purchase them at the grocery store. I can honestly say I’ve never had the thought that I wished I could buy hard-boiled eggs because boiling them myself was just too much work. Seriously. Boil the water and let them sit for ten minutes. Done.
- Pancake and Waffle Batter in a Can!
And especially organic pancake and waffle batter in a can! Because adding water to a mix is just too much work? Honestly, I still don’t get the idea of Reddi-Whip (is that how you spell it?) because it’s just so simple to pour some fresh, unadulterated heavy cream into a bowl with a little sugar and whip it into oblivion with a mixer. Why would you pay more to eat some propellants? I am sure that you can imagine that I make my pancakes and waffles from scratch, which is not that much work….maybe ten minutes to put it all together?….so I really don’t get the thought that goes into deciding that adding water to a boxed mix is just too difficult.
So…just a few things to think about. Does it really take more time to spread peanut butter and jelly between two slices of bread than to eat some processed fluff? Is it worth it to pay $5 for a can of pancake batter? I am not a single serve fan….why not cut up your own cheese and put it in a bag? Or divide your chips up into bags when you get home from the store?
Comments